Third Round of Big Ten Women's Tennis Championship Completed
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
May 1, 1999
EAST LANSING, Mich. - During the third day of the Big Ten Women's Tennis Championship, hosted by Michigan State University April 29-May 2 at the MSU Outdoor Tennis Courts, No. 1 seeded Northwestern and No. 2 seeded Wisconsin advanced to the championship round on Sunday, May 2, at 11 a.m.
Northwestern defeated No. 4 seed Illinois, 4-1, avenging a 4-3 loss to the Fighting Illini on February 28. The victory improved the 23rd ranked Wildcats record to 17-4 overall while Illinois dropped to 13-10 overall.
Northwestern Head Coach Claire Pollard said, "Illinois deserves a tremendous amount of credit. They played an unbelievable match and gave us everything we could handle. We were just fortunate that we could rise to the occasion."
On the championship match, Pollard said, "I am extremely excited for my team. They have worked extremely hard for this opportunity and it has been our goal to get here all year long."
Wisconsin defeated a surging No. 6 seed Iowa, 4-3, to advance to the championship round. Iowa upset No. 3 seeded Minnesota, 5-2, in the second round, and came just shy of a victory over the Badgers. The victory gave Wisconsin a 12-11 record while Iowa fell to 16-8.
Wisconsin Head Coach Patti Henderson said, "Every team wants the chance to be in the final. I felt that in today and yesterday's matches our opponent was always pushing us. In singles, they (Iowa) were the ones pushing and we didn't push back. I am really proud of the difference between doubles and singles, where we started pushing back."
NO. 1 NORTHWESTERN vs. NO. 4 ILLINOIS SINGLES No. 1 Katherine Nasser (NU) vs. Simone Kung NU 4-6, 7-6 (6), 5-3 (abandoned) No. 2 Stacy Schapiro (IL) def. Laura Guignon 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 No. 3 Shannon Duffy (NU) def. Brooke Ferney 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (0) No. 4 Colleen Cheng (NU) def. Carla Rosenberg 6-2, 6-3 No. 5 Lia Jackson (NU) def. Megan Wise 6-2, 6-2 No.6 Jennifer Lutgert (NU) vs. Natalia Mansova NU 1-6, 6-3, 5-4 (abandoned) DOUBLES No. 1 Nasser/Guignon (NU) def. Ferney/Rosenberg 8-4 No. 2 Cheng/Jackson (NU) vs. Kung/Schapiro 6-6 (abandoned) No. 3 Duffy/Weinraub (NU) def. Manasova/Gottlieb 8-3NO. 2 WISCONSIN vs. NO. 6 IOWA SINGLES No. 1 Barb Urbanska (UW) def. Toni Neykova (UI) 6-0, 7-6 (3) No. 2 Andrea Nathan (UW) def. Shera Wiegler 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-2 No. 3 Natalya Dawaf (UI) def.April Gabler 6-1, 6-3 No. 4 Emily Bampton (UI) def. Dena Baritot 6-0, 6-2 No. 5 Debbie Reynolds (UW) def. Erica Johnson 6-3, 6-2 No. 6 Roz Sweeney (UW) def. Erin Wolverton 6-3, 6-2 DOUBLES No. 1 Neykova/Wiegler (UI) def. Gabler/Urbanska 8-6 No. 2 Dawaf/Bampton (UI) vs. Baritot/Nathan 8-8 (abandoned) No. 3 Wolverton/Johnson def. Dougherty/Reynolds 8-6